US green group EDF aims to launch a satellite to spot methane leakage from oil and gas operations

The tens of millions of dollars needed for launch in early 2021 will be raised from private donations.

Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of an environment group seeing the need to spend so much money in this way, this development is an extraordinary indictment of the devious behaviour of much of the oil industry in trying to hold back monitoring of their emissions. The methane leakage issue is a recurrent theme on this website. My view is that when the accounting is fully understood – from the entire global gas value chain – net emissions from this fossil fuel may end up worse than coal. Of course, the lower carbon intensity of gas compared to coal, assuming no or minimal emissions, is held up constantly by the oil and gas industry as a justification for the continued (and indeed expanded) use of their product.